Backfired promises part 9.

Ymous woke up around midnight with a massive headache, he immediately started beating himself up being absent minded. Well, he thought, it didn't matter much now anyway. He had to sneak into the potions class sooner or later anyway, so he might aswell do it now, that he had woken up during the time where everyone else was sleeping.
The boy crept silently into the common room and realized he wasn't alone. He tried to sneak away without notice, but he realized that the other person was asleep on the couch, breathing calmly.
Ymous walked towards the couch, not really knowing why and realized that Merula had stayed in the common room to study after everyone else went to sleep. Anon wasn't quite sure why Merula was studying so hard, but he stopped to look at the girl for a moment. looking at her calm face sleeping, the boy felt a surge of emotions surfacing, He felt angry and guilty that he drove the two into this situation, he was somewhat happy to hear that she ran into less trouble ever since the two cut all ties, but it also made him extremely sad.
Ymous picked up a blanket from another couch nearby and extremely carefully covered the girl with it. He also felt extremely jealous that the girl could sleep like that.

After sneaking out from the common room, Anon made his way to potions class first, which wasn't far from the Slytherin common room, this wasn't his first time doing this, but he realized this wouldn't work forever, he had to be a bit more reckless this time, he needed to get enough of the materials he couldn't pocket during potions classes, and it ran the risk of Snape realizing something was up. But Anon felt desperate, as he slipped into the potions class, he went into the closet that had the materials he was lacking, without a second thought he conjured a few jars and grabbed all the materials he needed and made his way out of the classroom. and went out to a location he felt safe.
Ymous walked up and down a corridor a few times to make a peculiar room appear. He entered the room, which was an alchemy laboratory he'd been using to brew his potions. Originally he had used the room for brewing potions to help him get an advantage over Merula, but he came in the room for other reasons now. The boy arranged his ingredients on the table and started working on his potion it had taken him a few tries to get the potion right, and even then he wasn't completely satisfied with it.

Merula had followed Ymous silently, she had pretended to be asleep when the boy appeared in the common room where she was studying, She was confused at first, about why the boy was staring at her, but when he actually covered her up, she felt that she had to understand the boy's situation more. This wasn't the first time he snuck out, at first she thought he had gone to look for the vaults without her, but it quickly became apparent that the boy was up to something else. It made Merula a bit worried.
The girl noticed that the boy had disappeared into a room that only appeared when certain conditions were met, she didn't fully understand how the room worked, only that she had once before been in that room when she needed time alone, the girl started walking up and down the corridor, but couldn't make the room Anon was in appear. But she was determined to find out what was going on, the girl looked for a comfortable position where she could observe the mysterious room without being noticed and draped herself over the quilt Anon had pulled over her before leaving the common room.

Merula started dozing off, but managed to stay awake for what felt like hours, when Anon finally came out of the room. Merula noticed the boy was carrying a bag and in his hand was a vial of purple liquid. The girl waited for the boy to walk away when she started to walk past the room again, this time she knew the boy had used the room to brew potions, so she knew exactly what to think of.
Once the door appeared she went inside and found a familiar sight, it was unmistakably a lab where Anon worked, he had arranged his ingredients the exact same way he did during potion classes, she walked up to the table and sat down, looking down at the table for clues as to what the boy was brewing.
The table had notes the boy had written, she realized she had started smiling warmly as she read the boy's handwriting and looked at the way he had arranged the ingredients in his usual logical way in order for when different ingredients were added, she also noticed how the boy had alligned the cauldron a particular way, it wasn't directly infront of him, like you would think, he was sligthly to the side, as if he had been working with someone else.
The girl went back to his notes and smirked lightly when she realized that the boy had crossed over different lines and wrote things like "the other book said stir six times, stupid!" Her smile however vanished when she realized what potion he had been making. She had to tell someone, who would listen to her, if she told Snape, Anon would be in trouble and she really didn't want that anymore.

Rowan woke up that morning and went out to grab her glasses from the nightstand, when she realized Merula was standing infront of her bed, Rowan yelped a bit and got up.
"Merula, I didn't see you there, what are you doing?" Rowan asked startled.
"I need to talk to you, it's important." Merula said, she looked around the room and realized other Slytherin girls started staring at her and were murmuring among themselves. "Somewhere private."
"Uhh... I... Why do you want to talk to me all of the sudden?" Rowan asked confused.
"I said it was important, and I can't talk to you about it here, you idiot" Merula felt irritated. "Just trust me and meet me at courtyard after breakfast." Merula started to stomp away arms tensed to her sides.
Rowan went to dress up and decided to tell Anon about this, when Merula returned and turned Rowan around.
Merula was looking Rowan straight in her eyes and said. "DO. NOT. TELL. ANON."
Merula wasn't letting go for Rowan's shoulders. "Alright, Merula, I won't tell him." She promised the angry violet-eyed girl, who relented and walked away.

Rowan walked into the great hall and realized Anon was already there, usually it took him a bit longer to get out of the bed. The girl walked towards her friend and sat infront of him, looking down on his plate, which again seemed to consists of nothing but bacon, sausages and eggs.
"You really should eat healthier breakfasts, Anon." She said more out of a forced habit than actually expecting for the boy to listen to her. But to her surprise the boy started looking around the table. and grabbed a plate that had fruits and vegetables on it.
"A-Are you okay?" Rowan asked, as she watched the boy push his greasy breakfast aside and filled his plate with vegetables.
The boy didn't lift his head but grunted a short "yes." which made Rowan a bit more worried, she considered asking Anon what had happened with Merula, but she had already promised to listen to Merula first.
"I think I will go out on a short walk before classes." Rowan started, she realized she had made it sound more like an invitation out of habit, because she really didn't know how to take free time from the boy's presence. "Uh, alone, I need to clear my head a bit and I have... Uhh... Girl things..." She felt her face turning red as her voice faded into nothing.
The boy didn't seem to notice how flustered Rowan had become, but even he realized the girl wanted to be left alone, something he could relate to. "Alright, I'll see you at classes then." The boy said while trying his best to eat his healthy breakfast.
Rowan finished her breakfast quickly, so she would have time to speak to Merula, who was looking at her from the other side of the table. The two girls quickly got up and made their way towards the courtyard.

Penny had noticed Rowan and Merula were acting suspicious and decided to get to the bottom of it as well, she told her Hufflepuff cohorts that she needed some time alone to get ready for the day, the girls looked sad but went back to gossipping when Penny left the table. She passed Anon and thought about just sitting next to him, trying to get some alone time with him, but she was more curious about what Merula and Rowan were talking about.
Penny followed the two girls into a secluded area at the courtyard, that had a bench obscured by hedges, she crept closer and tried to hear what the two were talking about.
"...And you found this out because you snuck out and followed him during the night?" Rowan asked Merula.
"Yes, I thought the idiot was going out to look for the vaults, trying to beat me." Merula said with her usual tone.
Rowan seemed to pause for a little. "You knew he wasn't though, didn't you?"
After another pause Merula continued "Well... Yes, he was acting weird when he walked into the common room, it's so infuriating how he's acting." The girl said angrily.
"Where was he brewing potions without anyone realizing?" Rowan asked.
"Obviously in that room that appears when someone needs something." Merula said to Rowan, as if she had asked a really stupid question.
"I don't know a room like that, and Anon never told me about anything like that." The girl said saddened that her best friend had kept something else from her.
Merula seemed to have picked up on Rowan's tone. "It's very hard to make the room appear, maybe he waited for when he understood it better before he decided to tell you." Merula tried to sound sympathetic, but sounded completely out of character. "He probably didn't want to look foolish taking you to a room that didn't appear"
Rowan was silent.
"Well, I know why he didn't tell you about going out during night now, I found out what potion he was brewing, I saw him come out of the room carrying vials of them." Merula said, trying to keep Rowan focused.
Penny had heard enough, she wanted to be part of this conversation. She walked around the hedge and sat next to the two surprised girls.
"You really picked a poor spot for your secret meeting, you should always do your gossipping in a crowded area with lots of chatter going on, it's harder to eavesdrop you then." Penny said with a smile.
"What are you doing here?" Merula demanded angrily.
"Oh, you're not the only ones who wants to help Anon." Penny smiled at the Slytherins.
Rowan was a bit relieved Penny had showed up, she was nervous about talking to Merula alone like this. "Well, anyway then, what were you going to say next, Merula, what potion did Anon make?"
"He... He's been making sleeping potions." Merula said looking down. "Ones that have serious side effects if abused."
Rowan and Penny both looked at Merula with wide eyes. "Are you sure?"
"I saw his notes, he's been making potions of dreamless sleep" Merula said and pulled out Anon's notes she had taken from the room. "He's not mastered the potion yet, it helps him sleep, but it's causing him psychological stress."
Rowan looked at the notes and then Penny. "We have to tell someone."
"No!" Merula yelled. "He's going to get into more trouble if Snape hears he's been recklessly making advanced potions to help him sleep."
Penny went trough Anon's clumsy notes and realized he had been making mistakes along the way. "Have either of you noticed him being unable to sleep?"
"No, I don't know how it is with Hufflepuffs, but we sleep in separate dorms." Rowan said.
Penny just smiled mischieviously. "Oh we do that too, I just thought that... Nevermind."
"What are we going to do about this?" Merula asked. "The idiot is going to go insane if he keeps this up, it's a small wonder he hasn't already gone as crazy as his..." The girl stopped herself, feeling terrible she was about to go back to the old insults she threw at him.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to help him out." Rowan tried to reassure Merula.
"How do you plan we go about doing that?" Penny asked.
"I don't know." Admitted Rowan.